Recruitment = Communication.

Your business is all about people and relationships, but how do you maintain your communication with those people in order to keep your relationships?

It is a well-known fact that the recruitment sector is fast-paced and highly competitive, and with that comes the risk of being left behind if your communication can’t keep up.

Without reliable two-way communication, you lose the strength of those relationships with clients, miss the chance to comprehensively vet candidates, and will struggle to manage and direct your team.

How do changes in the ‘new working world’ impact my ability to communicate?

To maintain relationships and as much ‘business as usual’ consistency as possible, you need stable, easy to use platforms to keep your team performing from wherever they might be working.

While there may be a temptation to muddle through at the moment, in anticipation of some return to normality in the near future, the COVID-19 pandemic could be a catalyst for change should you decide to use it as an opportunity to embrace new technologies and ways of working in your business.

The COVID-19 pandemic is posing challenges for many industries. For Recruitment Agencies, social distancing requirements have made (and continue to make) physical interviews difficult.

Effective communication between your team is essential in general, but it becomes a greater challenge when working remotely.  It is important to ensure that employees feel ‘in the loop’ by using chat tools and holding regular catch up meetings.  Structuring the working day and maintaining open communication channels so that staff feel able to communicate freely will maintain productivity while boosting morale.  There are a wealth of tools and platforms to aid with team management, communication, and collaboration.  These vary immensely in terms of scalability and cost, so it may worth be considering investing in solutions that you might use in a ‘post-COVID’ world as opposed to employing stop-gap solutions that don’t really meet your communication requirements. 

Where do I begin to identify the strengths & weaknesses of my communications?

It’s an uncertain time for recruiters, your clients and candidates alike, so keeping communication channels open with candidates and clients will help your business appear professional and engaged.

Start thinking about the following where your current communications are concerned:

• How often are my team communicating with clients, and where is that recorded?
• How are my team communicating with, and interviewing, candidates? How is that recorded for evidence?
• How are my team communicating with one another?
• How much time is lost conversing and exchanging information via email?
• Can my team still make and receive calls as though they’re in the office?

Ensuring your business remains connected during this crisis is vital.  Not only in terms of staff productivity and morale but also in terms of how accessible you appear to clients and candidates.

If you can’t confidently and comprehensively answer any of these questions positively – you need assistance in getting back control of your communications.

There is a way forward

Now is also a great time to consider ways of introducing a touch-free recruitment process. As a start, you could use video conferencing solutions to help you conduct remote interviews.  Additionally, automated scheduling, online assessments and chatbot engagement can be incorporated into websites to help streamline the recruitment process and help reduce workloads both and in the future beyond the crisis.

Urban Network has years of experience in deploying efficient modern workplace solutions, which are tailored to your working practices and have security best practice built-in by design.

To learn more about tackling your challenges, please get your free copy of our ‘Adapt. Survive. Thrive.’ guide tailored to businesses in the recruitment sector.

We welcome the opportunity to provide you with a free, no-obligation discovery call – in which we’ll offer guidance in helping you answer the questions contained within this article, and map-out solutions to tackle those challenges, quickly, before they become an issue.